Follow the Red Brick Road - Planning Stage

This morning I pretty much finished the routes for our trip out west. (I am sure I will futz around with them some more, just in case I missed something) While the picture looks like one big loop (after all we do have to get back to Salt Lake City), it is made up of 21 individual routes. Essentially there are 17 primary day routes, with 2 alternative routes for the day, and 3 side trip routes that can be executed after we reach our motel for the evening. Miles is in the neighborhood of 4500 miles, the shortest day is the first day at 104 (we don't get on the road til around 3pm) and the longest day is 408 miles. Based on my spreadsheet we should be in before the sun goes down and the critters come out to play. Many days we are done before 5pm, which is a good thing.

I have waypoint symbols on the routes to differentiate landmarks, National Park Visitor Centers, BBQ joints, Water towns, National Wildlife preserves, odd ball places, hotels, and other historic places. The waypoints for each route will be printed to 4X6 index cards and placed in the map holder on the tank bag.

MeAsWe will have the master spreadsheet that tells us the estimated time of arrival and how many miles between waypoints. This simply is a tool to tell us if we are ahead of schedule (hardly ever), on schedule or are we gonna be late. This enables us to make changes or if can we add some adhoc place to visit. It is a guide, not a mandate. Well the in before sun down is a mandate. I even placed a waypoint where we had the deer strike last year. No point avoiding it. Matter of fact we should celebrate the place. We may even stop at this place to see if we can thank some of the folks that helped us out that night.